YOU COULDN'T see many daily paper editorial endorsements coming Gordon Brown's way even before the coup that froze in the headlights. But now? The Mirror is the Mirror, staunch as always – and not greatly moved by a "prank" from two "stupid" and "famously self-important" individuals. So, no shifts (or great interest) there.

What about the Times, though, supportive of Blair and not too keen on David Cameron economics? Shut that door. Hoon and Hewitt were "serious people" offering Labour MPs a "last opportunity". Case for being nice to Gordon closed.

No such certainties at the Indy. "Attempting to drop their pilot with a general election only months away would represent an unprecedented and colossal gamble." So there's some wriggle room. Yet things are getting stickier for the Guardian, which wanted Brown ditched last summer. The plotters' "actions may be mocked as the last throw of a discredited generation", it concludes. "The greater motive is disappointment with Mr Brown and alarm about Labour prospects if, as still seems likely, he leads it on polling day."

That – with an added jab at the cabinet's "pitiful" funk – doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement coming down the slipway. More like an extremely complex formula that, somewhere in a thicket of sub-clauses, could make Nick Clegg, pictured, a happy boy.